2024-03-17 06:29:00
The Milky Way is visible above the Ice Cube research facility in Antarctica. This time, neutrinos from our galaxy were captured for the first time./IceCube/NSF
Candidates for the ‘Tau neutrino’, whose identity has not yet been revealed, were selected at the Ice Cube Observatory, which is capturing neutrinos, the ‘ghost particles of the universe’, in Antarctica. Identifying tau neutrinos, which have been difficult to observe, is expected to accelerate the development of astronomy and astrophysics using neutrinos.
On the 4th, the research team led by Douglas Cowen, professor of physics at Pennsylvania State University, narrowed down the number of tau neutrino candidates to seven by analyzing observational information collected at the Ice Cube Observatory, on the pre-publication site ‘arXiv’ on the 4th. announced. The paper was approved for publication in ‘Physical Review Letters,’ an international academic journal in the field of physics.
Neutrinos are one of the basic particles that make up all things in the universe, produced when high-energy particles, cosmic rays, collide with atoms. The reason neutrinos are called ghost particles is because they rarely react with other substances. In astronomy and astrophysics, neutrinos flying from distant space are found deep underground, where other particles cannot enter, and are used as a means of observing the universe.
The Ice Cube Observatory at Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica was built in 2010. By planting 5,160 optical sensors in a 1㎦ volume of ice underground in Antarctica, they detect neutrinos at the rate of one in a million. This method detects signals from neutrinos that collide with the hydrogen and oxygen nuclei or electrons that make up water. By identifying neutrinos flying from space and passing through Earth, we can even find out the origin of the universe.
What the research team discovered was a tau neutrino. Neutrinos are classified into three types according to their vibration: electrons, muons, and tau. Among them, tau neutrinos were selected as a type whose signal is difficult to find in optical sensors. The research team collected data that might be classified as tau neutrinos and then created an artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning algorithm.
As a result of applying data collected at the Ice Cube Observatory between 2011 and 2020 to the algorithm developed by the research team, a total of seven tau neutrino candidates were selected. Research into the types of neutrinos plays an important role in understanding the creation process and movement path of neutrinos, and further understanding the celestial bodies in which neutrinos are created.
Professor Cowen said, “IceCube Observatory has opened a new era in astronomy by providing evidence for neutrino astrophysics for the first time,” adding, “This discovery provides exciting possibilities for studying new physics using tau neutrinos.”
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